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STX_Innovation continues his march on his Royal Road.

Last night STX_Innovation became the third Terran player to make it to the Code S Ro8. It was a natural progression for one of the tournament's sleepers, a player who had quietly progressed from each round, starting from the bottom of Code B. Strangely, his progress had gone largely unhyped up to now, and even his wins against Polt and Sniper were not the most eye-catching of the Ro16. However, with a match-up against one of the world's premier Zergs certain in the Ro8, he will certainly have a chance to make sure everyone learns who he is.

The first game of the night went badly for Innovation as he played a standard game against another rising player in MVP.Sniper. Innovation's 2-medivac drop was denied and then killed off by lings and mutas leaving Bogus vulnerable to an attack. Sniper then did his best Julyzerg impression and did a massive muta ling/bane bust off of 3 base and kept attacking until Innovation was crippled. Infestors and broodlords followed after, giving Innovation no option but to GG.

After that early setback, however, Innovation hit his stride for the rest of the night. He tied up the series with Sniper with a hellion-marine-medivac timing that did massive damage, and then he finished off the MVP Zerg with another timing attack that left him dead before he could hatch a single infestor.

Innovation would meet TSL_Polt in the winners match. The first match was an odd and extremely tense early-game 'base trade' as Innovation went for a banshee with hellion drop to kill all of Polt’s SCVs, while Polt did the same to Innovation by making cloaked banshees. Innovation was able to get a second orbital up, and with two mules to one, he was able to take the game. The second game was a lot more standard as Innovation went for a triple cc into double e-bays. Polt tried to rush to medivacs for a drop but was denied, giving Innovation an economic lead and letting him take the center of the map. From there he just had to play safely to increase his lead, and Polt was forced into a suicidal engagement against Innovation's containing army. Polt was instantly crushed and Innovation walked right out of the group and into the Ro8.

Going into the ro16, Innovation was the most mysterious player of the sixteen. His SC2 career started off quite inauspicious as he won no games in the hybrid Proleague and fell down early in the OSL dual tournament. There had been some rumors floating around about how good he was in practice, and how he held high spots on the ladder with absurd win-rates. He then quietly got past the Code B on his first try, destroyed his way through Code A and then scraped by in his ro32 Code S. He is now 7-1 in series in GSL, only losing one bo3 against Leenock, and is 14-5 in games. The mystery has been broken, the ambiguity has been lost and Innovation has revealed his identity as the next evolution of the timing attack Terran.

Among Terrans, there are three types of aggressive Terrans: The positional calculator, the berserker, and the timer. A positional calculator is someone like Polt or Supernova. Players that move their armies in aggressive forward positions trying to force the enemy to move out of the wrong place. They then cause a domino like effect in the game where they seem to always be a step ahead in each attack until they win the game. The berserker is someone like MKP or Gumiho. Players that keep attacking and harassing and making cost efficient trades while taxing the skill of the opponent. And the last type is Timer. They create builds and play the game looking for the one timing attack that will win them the game.

Innovation is of this last type. He is the new improved ForGG. Innovation hits his builds at a better time with more units and better control than other Terrans. On top of that, he understands how to macro behind it and set up an even stronger timing based off of how much damage he did the first time. It’s still extremely hard to say exactly what his contender status is, but one thing is clear. Innovation is a new kind of Terran, one who knows how to attack.

MVP.Sniper eliminates fan favorites to advance in second place.

Sniper was dropped by Innovation in the first match, and was sent down to face off against ST_PartinG in the losers match. There was a lot riding on this match as the loser would be dropped down to Code A. But more than that, it was a match with Parting’s 'Soul' on the line. He had gone on record saying he was 70-0 with his wonwonwon Immortal push in practice, and that the 'soul' he put into his pushes made them unstoppable.

Since then interview, Protoss after Protoss have risked and lost their souls trying to emulate the Soul Push: Rain, JYP, Vampire, Hero, Huk, Oz, Creator, and Crank were all exposed as soulless husks. In an attempt to try to decipher the secrets of Parting’s spirituality, IPL had invited him to the Hyun Fight Club with a 2300 dollar prize. And all the world waited with baited breath, but it wasn’t meant to be. Parting refused to bet his soul, and settled for a 1 – 5 loss to HyuN without using his signature build.

But with his GSL Code S life on the line, Parting had no choice but to rely on his wonwonwon against Sniper. It was a game heard around the world as you could hear Parting’s soul shriek in horror as Sniper forcibly removed it tore it from his body. It didn't even look hard, as Sniper had an easy time baiting out force-fields with fake surrounds, only attacking once he was in perfect position to smash PartinG's army.

With PartinG's ace in the hole exposed, it was a foregone conclusion that he would lose the second game as well. He hit a nice timing with a double robo collosus stalker army against Sniper, but one ill-advised soulless blink into Sniper’s spines, lings and infestors lost him the game.

Sniper’s games against TSL_Polt looked similar, despite being against a different race. Polt went for a strong marauder/hellion timing, but was easily blocked by Sniper’s queens and roach/ling army. From there, Polt tried for another timing by pulling some scvs, but mutas were out by then. He did some damage, but Sniper was just able to counter-attack and win the game. Game two was equally as quick as Polt went for a fast triple cc and Sniper did a roach bane bust. The damage was far too much. Polt tried to stick in the game, but the endless lings and mutalisks would win Sniper the game.

With that victory, Sniper has surpassed his more famous teammate DRG in this GSL. Simultaneously, he's inherited the "villain" card held in the past by players such as Heart, TheBest, or NaNiwa (who held the "Hero" card at the same time). Sniper's not bad-mannered at all, and he doesn't use any more cheesy plays than the average player. But by coincidence (or fate), Sniper has become the official buzz-killer of the GSL. His vile deeds include include all-killing the already-dead Slayers, making Eve cry, and eliminating Parting and Polt in the final GSL of 2012. If he eliminates Leenock or Life in the next round, then his infamy will only grow.

Soulless in Code-B

Before he lost his soul to Sniper, Parting also lost the first series to Polt, making him the third player this season to beat a player in ro32, choose him in the Ro16 group selections and then lose to him (the other two were DRG and Yoda). While Parting didn’t play well, Polt played excellently. He started off with a 10 rax off of 2 base against Parting’s triple nexus build. The reason this was so genius is that Parting and Polt have played in GSL twice now. Once in Season 2 and once in the last round. Both times, Parting used the same triple nexus build against Polt. So Polt’s build was a genius strategy aimed against the tendencies of Parting’s play as well as Parting’s mentality. The game would turn into a pseudo base-trade as Parting tried for a gateway timing while Polt’s army out on the map. While Polt was able to lift his natural and keep his main, Parting was unable to stop Polt from kiling his third, probes and defending army. Parting had to bring his army back, letting Polt retake his natural. From there, Polt would constantly attack until Parting had nothing left.

The second game seemed to lack a lot of soul from Parting. Polt tried to do a proxy 11/11 rax, but Parting’s probe scout saw the second scv and Polt had to adjust on the fly. Despite that setback, Polt would outplay Parting in the macro game as he constantly delayed the third while expanding himself. The game ended with one brilliant move by Polt as he moved in the center, drawing Parting’s army to the front. From there he would stim and loop around to Parting’s and cancel it while killing Parting’s sole colossus. Polt would then keep attacking while Parting was unable to keep it and had to GG.

With his soul gone, Parting will now have to forge on in Code A. Luckily for him, this season of Code A resembles the land of Oz as there is a Heart, Brain and Brave wandering around. So Parting could possibly find a replacement soul or just ask Seed for a loan. Polt on the other hand played fairly strongly. He completely outplayed Parting. He lost a close game against Bogus, and was at a disadvantage in game 2 after his drop did nothing. His games against Sniper weren’t indicative of anything as his all-in was stopped and he got hit by a build order loss from Sniper. So expect Polt to make it straight back into Code S next season.

Group D: ST_Life, Woongjin_Soulkey, FXOLeenock, TSL_Symbol


It's amusing to try and make sense of how this all happened. Life started the ZvZ madness by picking Soulkey with his first pick, but since it's Life, you can't really say he made an irrational choice. His logic is "it doesn't matter who I play, because I'll win anyway," and it's logic he's backed up with results thus far, and it's hard to argue against that. It doesn't matter at all that it was Curious picking for Life in absentia, because Life really doesn't care who he faces.

All of this is really Soulkey's fault as he decided to pick Leenock next – with YoDa, Ryung, and Bogus all on the table. Now, maybe Soulkey has reason to be confident in ZvZ, as it did happen to be his best match-up in the MvP tournament. He went 11 – 1 in the regular season, beat Jaedong and Hyvaa 8 – 2 in the playoffs, and was only stopped by 3 – 4 by soO. On top of that, Soulkey wouldn't even have been guaranteed to play the Terran he picked, depending on how the group worked out. But even then, wouldn't it be preferable to have the CHANCE of playing a ZvT than include one of the best ZvZ players in the world in your group? I'm pretty sure any of those Terrans would have felt a lot worse facing Soulkey than the other way around. After that, Leenock had no say in the matter, as he was forced to 'pick' the last remaining player in Symbol.

Well, there's no way to change things now. Let's take a guess at how everyone might be feeling:


Symbol: Last picked? It's an honor, but one I would have easily declined if I could have gotten into a different group. I'm pretty comfortable in ZvZ, and in GSTL, I would be 100% okay taking on any of these guys in an ace match. But turtle-hive play is my greatest strength, and with a Protoss or Terran player in my group, my chances of advancing would have gone up a ton. It sucks that I might get eliminated without being able to show my best play. Even so, I don't think I'm lacking compared to my opponents, and with a little luck, I should be able to make it through to the Ro8.

Leenock: Damn, this is a dillema. On one hand, none of the Terran or Protoss players I've gone up against have been able to deal with my creative attacking play, backed up with my shameless and unparalleled abuse of brood lords and infestors. I can be the most entertaining and boring player in the world within the same series, and it makes me an incredibly difficult match-up for a Terran or Protoss player. Man, I wish Rain had figured out a way to play in GSL as well as MLG; I wouldn't have minded showing him the door out in Code S as well.

On the other hand, didn't I just come within a game of beating the best ZvZ player in the world? I had Life on the ropes at MLG, and I even came back from fifty supply down in one of the games by being a total boss. I was way ahead in the final game and could have won, but I got ahead of myself, got nervous, and let it go. As long as I don't do something dumb like that again, I can beat that kid. The bad series I had against TaeJa last season was just a fluke, and this time around, I know I have what it takes to be the best player in the world.

Soulkey: Well, that was easy. Compared to the near-lottery of the OSL, and the ridiculously convoluted steal draft of the MSL, this is a refreshing simple format that gives the players some power but keeps things simple.

The GSL has been tough, and I feel a bit fortunate to have made it so far. Everyone seems to be complaining about Zerg being overpowered, but the only match-up where I'm really feeling it these days is ZvZ. Yes, I could have picked Bogus or Ryung, but look at how those guys did! They were better than everyone expected, and I can't guarantee that I would have won against them (Soulkey's subconscious: I'm denying YoDa's existence). On the other hand, I did great at ZvZ in the MvP tournament, and I really took care of business against Jaedong and Hyvaa. I've got plenty of Life and Leenock VODs to watch, so with some good preparation, and maybe a little luck, I'm all set to make it to the round of eight.

Life: Whatever.


Prediction

Leenock > Symbol
Life > Soulkey
Leenock > Life
Soulkey > Symbol
Life > Soulkey

Leenock and Life advance.